I have never flown on one of their A340-300s, but in the early 70s I flew on one of their 707-320s named City of Sparta. I am wondering why Olympic didn't go for the 747-400, they need this high passenger capacity aircraft to handle the busy summer season between JFK & Athens. I heard already that they are booked solid for June, July, & August.

Don't forget, Greece is one of the poorer nations in the EU. Sure, the 744 would have been ideal for the JFK route, but if they went for that instead of the EU made A340, you'd probably see an end to all the aid they get from the EU's richer members. Then again, their purchase of the 717 makes me scratch my head. That's Greek politics for you.

Louis

Oh, and Olympic has plans for a 2Xdaily JFK flight. Still, the 744 would have better for this too, especially since Astoria is the largest Greek community outside Greece.

I don't understand why you mentionned Greece is one
of the poorest EU countries ?? do you mean this country
has been given aid by the European institutions to
buy Airbus aircrafts ??? were you really serious when
you wrote this post ?? I don't really think so because
you don't know about Airbus and EU at all !!

So the EU made the A340 and blackmails its members
for not buying european aircrafts ?? ahahhahaahah....

Let me tell you that they bougght Airbus because their
managers estimate that these aircrafts fit better to
their market and also about criteria like prices, seats
capacity, and so on...

I have not been on one yet, but will in August. Just picked up someone from the airport a few days ago who came in on one. Her subjective opinion- "nice plane, comfortable seats, excellent IFE screens, seems quite new-still smells like a new car! Only real complaint was that the ATH-JFK flight that took about 9 1/2 hrs with the old 747's now takes an average of 10 hrs and 40 minutes. That last extra hour must be torture. She also mentioned that the service was very good, the flight attendants were cheerful and attentive(a refreshing change for OA!), and the food was decent. Speedwing is really sharpening up this company. I hope they exorcise any remaining vestiges of the old OA mentality. Sorry that I didn't have more specific details.

Did I mention the word blackmail? If I did, please point it out. Greece is one of the poorest EU countries. It totally lags behind Germany and France. Those countries give Greece a lot of aid, especially since the Greek government is too inept to do anything for the struggling economy. I just pointed out that EU aid could dry up if Olympic, which is still government owned to the best of my knowledge, made a large order of American-made aircraft. Remember the criticism Air France and Alitalia too for ordering 777's and 744's, respectively? It's not blackmail, but "I scratch your back if you scratch mine" mentality. This has been going on for years in Greece, not just with Airbus, but many other things too.

the EU institutions can't put pressure on
Greek government if it buys only Boeing....I need to
remind you that Airbus is not linked at all to the EU
council....these are two separate things !! I don't say
that some political pressure have to be excluded in the
A340 buys but this is not the main factor that lead the
OA managers to buy these aircrafts !!! In this case,
EU countries like Belgium would have their EU aid cut
if SABENA owned a full Boeing fleet instead of a Airbus
one ?? what's about a less favoured EU country like
Portugal ?? do you mean they could get less money if
they bought B767 instead of A330 for their fleet
replacement ?? no...no that's absolutely wrong !! Politics is not always linked to business world !!

in the case of SABENA...do you think that the Belgian
government who still own major stakes in the
company, get EU money for having paid a entire Airbus
fleet ??

Have OA decided to reinstate the Australian services that were cut (or are about to be?) Apparently there was a huge outcry, since (to correct an above post) Melbourne has the second biggest Greek population outside Athens of any city, and NY is third (Salonica fourth). I loved flying OA's 747 Classics to Sydney, apart from the grumpy flight attendents I always liked OA. Yet to experience their A340s.

Tca256: Ok, maybe this will clear things up. The EU will not look favorably towards Greece if they don't support one of the EU's industries. The EU may not OWN airbus, but Airbus is run by countries within the EU. Belgium isn't in as bad a situation as Greece, thus they don't receive as many subsidies.

Cedarjet: I'm pretty sure Astoria has the largest Greek population outside Greece. I was there in January and it's just like Athens. And OA canceled the Melbourne leg of the Australia flight, but they kept the Sydney one. Check out the OA website (I forgot the address), and go into the news section.

OA has decidied not to eliminate the Melbourne route. All politcal speculation aside, by chosing the 299 seat A-340-300, OA does not have the capacity to properly serve their long-haul international routes. All flights to ATH from JFK are now jam-packed. Many Greeks living abroad, especially those in the New York area and in Australia, are now hampered in their travels back to the homeland. Many tourists would think twice traveling there if it involves a change of flights en route. In a country where tourism is the #1 industry, not being able to properly feed this industry, especially with the national airline, is foolhardy. Delta is the only other airline with scheduled non-stop flights to ATH from the US (JFK and ATL) with MD-11's. Delta actually has more seats to ATH than OA from USA! OA does have 2 more options pending for A-340-300's but has not ordered them yet. Sure 747-400's (or forthcoming A-340-500's for that matter) )are more expensive to buy and operate, but the Greek GDP suffers in the long run. If in fact there was EU pressure for Airbus products at the time of ordering aircraft, then the EU is very short-sighted in cultivating its investment in Greece.

You say that EU won't look favorably toward Greece if
OA managers don't buy Airbus.....as someone else
stated, why didn't the EU put pressure on countries
like Sweden, Norway and Denmark (SAS company) for
having bought Boeing ?? why didn't the EU quarrel with
countries like France who bought B777 ?? I remind you
that these rich countries are very high contributors to the EU funds for poorest countries like Greece...so you mean "richer EU" countries can buy Boeing when they try to prevent the poorest to do the same ??? it's absoultely false...where is the logic in this idea ???

An other point, do you really think Eu council quarrels
with its members when they don't buy "european"
products ?? let me remind you that most European
countries own American equipment for their Air Forces
(F16, F-4, AH-64, and so on)...why didn't the EU put
pressure on Netherlands when they bought AH-64
Apach instead of Eurocopter products ???

Stop to think that EU council and big european industries have tight links...EU authorities helped Airbus
in the past to develop its activities but it never controls this company at all !! EU countries are free....free...free...they are not linked at all from pressure of the EU council about Airbus, stop
to believe in American misconceptions of Europe !!!
Something you can say is that head of states like Jacques Chirac likes to deal
with Chinese to sell Airbus but wouldn't Clinton do that
with the same asian guys for helping Boeing??

Oooh again...you say that EU can't own Airbus but
Airbus is owned by states !!! do you have any knowledge of European institutions law ?? EU decisions
are taken by both the "European commission" and the
"European council"...both of them are composed by
representatives of every states...the EU is composed
itself of 15 countries but NOT OF ALL OF THEM have
invested money in Airbus so explain me why a country
like Sweden with its Saab industry would put pressure on Greece for buying its competitor Airbus ??? it's not rational at all !!! What's about countries like Luxemburg
or Portugal who haven't any penny invested in the
Airbus group ?? do you think they share the same view
like France, Belgium or UK ?? that's like saying the
governors of Arkansas, New York and Oregon think the
same about death penalty !!!!

I was a passenger on SX-DBB on Jan 31 from JFK to ATH and on SX-DBA from
ATH to JFK on Feb 10. The plane was nice and roomy but the service from the
Olympic Staff was less than perfect. After the food is served we didn't see the
Flight Attendants for most of the flight.

I'm a very frequent passenger of OA's flight 269 ATH-LHR and the last couple of times I "tasted" the A340 for the first time (normally used A300-600).
As a plane is really nice (PTV,comfortable,reduced noise in cabin,seats turn into beds in first class) although I'm a fan of 747s.A version with 200 more seats I believe it would be the best choice for Olympic.And for those who wonder why Olympic didn't go for the 777 it's because 777s are two-engine aircraft and two-engine aircraft are not allowed to make long-distance flights over an ocean.
As for the service was both times excellent as always when I travel with Olympic.Apart from the 8 different movie program and the 16 channels with music the flight attendants were willing to serve us.And what can I say about the food : Olympic is famous for its excellent in flight meals.

Yeah...you're wrong about B777...this aircrafts is
certified ETOPS as B767s ensuring flights from Europe
to US East coast (NYC for example) !! They definitely
chose for Airbus because of market factors !!

I like very much OA livery and I wouldn't bother if I
had to fly a short-medium flight with them...for a flight
from Europe to Sydney, I would rather prefer SQ, KLM
or MH !! The aircrafts are good but inflight service is
average compared to competitors !!

Do many Greek people smoke? Because I noticed that they have a smoking section on their A340s. Why even have sections. Smoke doesnt just stay in one spot! You whole body and all your stuff would smell like smoke! Yuck yuck yuck. I could not imagine sitting in a metal tube for 10 hrs while smoke from the end of the plane is being circulated to the front and through out the cabin. I would not fly Olympic for that reason. The panels in the plane would turn yellow, the seats would smell, ...etc

I'm quite surprised to hear that AO has smoking
sections...I thought EU has imposed bans for
preventing people to smoke on public transports !!
Euuuuh...maybe the directive is not
applied since most of charter flights (especially
in Belgium) still allows passengers to smoke a cigarette !

By the way...others companies still allow people to
smoke like JAL and some EU companies on flights direction to Tokyo...!!

I'm not sure you could suffer from cigarettes....a few
years ago I travelled with AF direction to NYC, there
was a smoking section in the middle of the coach
section...a kind of "fumoir" (french word !!) and nobody
seem to be bothered...and the panels weren't yellow,
and so on...maybe they had a good ventilation system!!

Anybody questioning the decision by Olympic to use the A340 in preference to the 747-400 will find the answer posted by VC-10 under 'Are A340's underpowered' in the Technical/Operational discussion forum.

Here it is demonstrated that the fuel burn of the A340 per seat is some 14% lower than the -400. As the point has been made that Greece is one of the poorer EU nations, along with the fact that the A340 is cheaper to purchase or lease than the -400 (I'm sure I will be corrected if I am wrong), then these factors indicate that OA have made the correct choice of aircraft for these particular routes.

The fact that they are fully booked on some routes for three months if the year does not justify half empty aircraft for the other nine months.